1970s: Numerous demonstrators protesting the policies of King Hassan are jailed in secret detention centers. Many of them disappear or are killed.

Today: In 2000, hundreds of former political prisoners and activists in Morocco protest outside a former secret prison to condemn past human rights abuses and to demand trials for those responsible for the detentions, deaths, and disappearances of ex-prisoners.

1970s: Morocco is involved in an inconclusive desert war in the former Spanish Sahara with Mauritania and the Polisario Front. By the end of the decade, Mauritania withdraws, leaving only Morocco and the Polisario Front, which in 1976 proclaims the region the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic.

Today: Although the United Nations has agreed to sponsor a referendum on the disputed territory...